Lighten up, it's No Smoking Day

Alan, Ken, Carole and me

Who runs Britain?

Reviewing The Bully State
Chris Snowdon, author of Velvet Glove Iron Fist: A History of Anti-Smoking, has written a review of Brian Monteith's The Bully State. Comparing the book to David Harsanyi’s Nanny State: How Food Fascists, Teetotalling Do-Gooders, Priggish Moralists and Other Boneheaded Bureaucrats Are Turning America into a Nation of Children (2007), Snowdon writes: Eating, drinking and smoking feature prominently, since they have been propelled into the frontline by an over-mighty public health lobby.

More pictures from The Cross Kings
Above and below, more pictures from Wednesday night's Save Our Pubs & Clubs gig featuring King Kool, Larp and Native Souls. Prior to the event someone commented, rather uncharitably, on this blog, "I'm quite sure that all twelve people that bother to turn up, will spread the word far and wide". OK, the venue wasn't bursting at the seams but we weren't embarrassed and there was no lack of atmosphere. The great thing was, we were reaching out to an audience that prior to this event was probably ignora

Save Our Pubs & Clubs - the gig
Fantastic evening at the Cross Kings in London on Wednesday night. I must admit that I had reservations that an evening of "grunge-fuelled rock 'n' roll" in support of the Save Our Pubs & Clubs campaign would work, but I couldn't have been more wrong. (Apologies to organiser Dan Donovan, above right and below left, for doubting him!) It was great and I would happily do it again. Full report and

A Miller's tale
Three weeks I ago I attended the funeral of my old friend George Miller and wrote about it HERE. Today the Independent published an obituary written by another old friend, Dr Julian Lewis (Conservative MP for New Forest East). Some of it is news to me - and I was the best man at George's wedding! The paper describes George as an "anti-communist campai

Study says critics of smoking ban were wrong
BBC News published a curious little story on Monday evening. In fact, you could be forgiven for thinking that the principal reason for running it was simply to rubbish critics of the smoking ban, notably Forest. The report was prompted by a Cardiff University study that concluded that "The smoking ban in the UK did not lead to children being exposed to more smoking at home". Surprise, surprise, "Anti-smoking groups and the government said the results vindicated the introduction of the ban". In contrast, said t